Thursday, October 8, 2015

Woche 13: Desiree's Baptism and Transfer Calls






Desiree is baptized!! 

She was just glowing! She looked so beautiful and happy. She has such an amazing support system already and her introduction to the ward and FHV was so simple. We love you, we're all different and we help each other. She's already planning on going with the ward on their temple trip to Switzerland next month! 

Sister Godwin and I had the serious blessing of meeting with Schwester Zdunkowski this week. She's an inactive member because she isn't able to come to church each week. We've been trying to meet with her for the past two transfers but she is the busiest almost 92 year old woman I have ever met. She and her husband moved to Salt Lake, back to Germany, moved again to a tiny dorf, back to Salt Lake and finally moved to Ober-Olm. 

She met her husband when she was serving a 28 month mission in the Berlin mission office the year after World War II ended. Her husband was called up into the German army two days before he turned 16. And soon thereafter was captured as the Russians swept through parts of Germany. He escaped and made his made through Russian territory to Berlin to find his family, who had already fled before the invasion. As soon as her mission ended, he got called to serve in East Germany. Spending any time in East Germany would require them to wait even longer before they were allowed to immigrate to the United States. 

We talked together about hope and how it works with other Christlike attributes. She spoke about remembering times in testimony meeting where people said that they KNEW that Heavenly Father was there and that they KNEW the gospel was true. She talked about having a strong belief and testimony but to her, knowing was something that was evidence and something you saw. It wasn't until later in life that she felt that faith was knowing because there is no other way. Her beliefs are so tightly wound and apart of who she is and what she does that she KNOWS that Heavenly Father is there. She is one incredible lady. 
Some gardening before the Low Country Boil

We had our youth activity!! For those interested, it was comprised of three parts. Gaining the spirit, getting ready, and finding! American youth are great and have fantastic energy but I definitely didn't miss hearing swag and yolo these past few months hahah


We spoke about sacrifice in Gospel Principles and someone brought up Malachi 3 when speaking about tithing. The translation of 'the windows of heaven' into German is interesting to me. The word used -die Schleusen, makes me picture water being poured out the moment the shutters open. With such force that the window can barely hold it in. Obedience brings blessings and be if mindful of Gods will can bring us so much more that we can ever imagine. 


That night we had a Low Country Boil in the Fugals garden to celebrate Sister Fugals birthday. We made apple crisp (turns out there are perks to buying 5 kilos of apples from a Tuekish laden haha) and We had Frogmorestew. Marvelous. I'm making this a tradition. Suellen and David, two investigators, came as well. It started raining so we all ate inside the garden house which doesn't have electricity. So we had candles and jazz music- I had flashbacks to group dates... weird. 







We're going three (transfers) together!! There was some serious anxiety during transfer calls but we're in Mainz for one more!!! So ridiculously excited!!! 


This week is going to be great!! 
Love you all!
Sister Riser ❤️

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